Movieline

The 9 Worst Shows NBC Aired During Jeff Zucker's Tenure

    • It was a bittersweet moment for the Internet when Jeff Zucker announced earlier today that he was leaving NBC. Sweet, of course, because most people deem Zucker the enemy in the Great Late Night War of 2010, and it's a nice bit of schadenfreude to see him walking out the same door as Conan O'Brien. But it's bitter, too; now which network executive is everyone going to mock and insult? That remains up for debate, but what isn't is that Zucker's reign of terrible television is over. Ahead, take a trip with Movieline down memory lane to remember the 9 worst shows from his tenure.

    · The Jay Leno Show

    Number of episodes: 95

    Calling The Jay Leno Show a disaster about covers it and kudos to Zucker for yanking it off the air when he did. Wait, did I say "kudos"? I mean, nice of him to bow to affiliate pressure and throw the future of his late night division onto the street in the process. This was his Waterloo and he was around for Joey.

    · Joey

    Number of episodes: 46

    At least it's still a punchline all these years later?

    · Knight Rider

    Number of episodes: 17

    Zucker's infatuation with Ben Silverman led to stuff like the Knight Rider reboot, a show that was an excuse for NBC to run a car commercial during primetime once a week.

    · Kath & Kim

    Number of episodes: 17

    Imports are so hot...except when they're done badly and without a trace of the bite or humor from their original.

    · Coupling

    Number of episodes: 11 (7 of which were unaired)

    See: Kath & Kim.

    · quarterlife

    Number of episodes: 6 (1 of which aired on NBC)

    Hoping to capitalize on the explosion of the blogosphere, NBC aired quarterlife, a television show-cum-MySpace series about a blogger. Spoiler: It didn't go very well.

    · My Own Worst Enemy

    Number of episodes: 9

    Maybe it's not fair to blame Zucker for this one; after all, it starred Christian "Series Murderer" Slater.

    · The Lyon's Den

    Number of episodes: 13 (7 of which were unaired)

    Great cast (Rob Lowe, Kyle Chandler, Elizabeth Mitchell and David Krumholtz), terrible series.

    · Outsourced

    Number of episodes: 1 (so far)

    Forgive me for jumping the gun, but not only is Outsourced pretty bad, but it is also acting as a roadblock for Parks & Recreation, one of the most consistently strong comedies on television. Only a completely tone deaf executive would make a move like this, so it makes sense that it will stand as one of Zucker's final moves.

    Of course, there are plenty more where these came from. Leave your least favorites in the comments below.